Scientists Just Used The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Built to Look at Uranus

[Judi Lynn]

Story by Michelle Starr • 10h ago

We've just been given a spectacular new perspective on what is possibly the oddest ball in the Solar System.



Scientists Just Used The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Built to Look at Uranus
© Provided by ScienceAlert

The James Webb Space Telescope has turned its golden, infrared gaze on the enigmatic seventh world from the Sun, Uranus – and the image it returned has revealed the turquoise planet in gleaming glory. Moons, rings, and all.

Every planet and dwarf planet in the Solar System has its own set of quirks and idiosyncrasies that make it special, but Uranus is truly peculiar. The icy, gelid world, at first glance, looks fairly unremarkable, but the closer you look, the weirder – and more beautiful – it gets.

But you have to look beyond the colors our own eyes can detect, in which Uranus appears to be a relatively featureless orb of pale blue. In thermal imaging, for example, comprising radio and infrared wavelengths, scientists have been able to measure the physical properties of Uranus' faint, icy rings.



A zoomed-in view showing Uranus' spectacular, ethereal ring system. ( NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/J. DePasquale )
© Provided by ScienceAlert

JWST is the most powerful space telescope ever launched, and it sees the Universe exclusively in infrared and near-infrared. That makes it perfect for capturing the stretched glow of light that was shed billions of years in our past.

More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-just-used-the-most-powerful-space-telescope-ever-built-to-look-at-uranus/ar-AA19I9Kk

[TheBlackAdder]

1. I wonder if it will see the USS Enterprise circling it looking for Klingons.

.

Butt seriously, that's cool.

.

[sprinkleeninow]

3. Don't!! (I think the same actually when I see this planet named.)

🤣

[whopis01]

4. Hats off to you...

The Klingon joke was decent - but the second joke you slipped in was what got me.

I just couldn't let that go unnoticed.

[sprinkleeninow]

5. I just caught that.

Clever.

[TheBlackAdder]

7. The Klingon joke was from the late 70s or early 80s.

.

What does toilet paper and the USS Enterprise have in common?

They both circle Uranus looking for Klingons.

.

[Igel]

22. If so, may they all land and think, "space suits? We are Klingons, we don't need space suits."

Seriously, I'm not into planetary science but the JWST visuals are riveting and fascinating.

I don't get those who don't distinguish "humbling" from "humiliating".

JWST pix are humbling and I'm often in awe.

[ColinC]

2. ....

(Sorry I couldn’t help myself)

[maxsolomon]

6. Headline of the Year.

Well done, MSN.

[ret5hd]

8. I'd have come a little closer ...

if I’d known they were interested.

[paleotn]

9. Sorry, but myanus doesn't look anything like that.

[erronis]

10. Not that I want to know, but could I guess: red and expansive?

[paleotn]

16. Ha! Good one.

Only in my college days when I'd frequent Taco "Hell".

[dchill]

11. I felt that!

Wondered what that was!

[niyad]

12. KNR and bookmarking. Thank you for this fascinating post.

[marble falls]

13. I have to admit, I didn't notice your name attached to the post and figured mahatmacoatjeeves was ..

...up to hi jinks.

But the photos are spookily beautiful and the article was really worth the read.

[RussellCattle]

15. Judi, thanks for posting this. This new telescope just continues to amaze us. The article.....

.....answers, in part, a question that I've had about how the JWST's viewing time may be allocated. This image, it says, was done with twelve minutes of viewing time, which strikes me as a modest amount. I believe that the telescopes main purpose, both in it's design and rationale, are to look deeper in space, so it's interesting to see that nearby objects like this are getting some attention.

Thanks again. I have to wonder what you think about all the "Uranus" jokes though.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. "You are feeling very sleepy. Very sleepy. On the count of 1,2, 3, you will ...." ?

[burrowowl]

18. Thanks for link!

[Victor_c3]

19. I wonder what types of views we can get of the planets closer to us

Uranus is almost twice as far from the sun as Saturn and Saturn is nearly twice as far from the sun as Jupiter. The same with mars and Jupiter.

I wonder what sort of resolution you could get of Mars.

I had a cheap 6” Newtonian refractor when I was younger and I thought it was awesome looking at Mars. You could even see the icecaps!

[FreepFryer]

20. I never signed a release, they are gonna hear from my lawyer and onlyfans' lawyer

I don’t care how big they wanna claim their telescope is, its always an exaggeration

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Very Cool

The images are awesome.